Asia's Coming Nuclear Arms Race

While America’s post-Cold War conventional superiority has made it a proponent of nuclear disarmament, it relied heavily on nuclear weapons to deter the Soviet Union in Europe for most of the Cold War. Should China’s conventional military buildup continue unabated over the coming decades, the U.S. will come to find it nearly impossible to defend Eastern Asia through conventional military means alone. In this scenario, if the Cold War is any guide, the U.S. could come to find it must rely on nuclear weapons once again.